


In June

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Category: Big Bang Theory
Genre: Community:sheldon_penny, F/M, Saturnalia 2012
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 09:02:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/595917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missy and Wyatt Jr. get engaged. Sheldon, determined to stop the wedding, agrees to be Best Man, but he's not counting on the time he and Maid of Honor Penny will have to spend together as the wedding draws near...</p>
            </blockquote>





	In June

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Muir_Wolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muir_Wolf/gifts).



> Written for Saturnalia 2012. BBT characters do not belong to me and I am making no money from this work of fan fiction. Thanks to Lisa for the beta.

“I can’t believe this.” Sheldon is staring at the telephone as though it’s just bitten his ear.

“Believe what, sweetie?” Penny has a fair idea of what he’s talking about, but decides to play along, just in case he’s talking about something other than what she got a phone call about earlier that day from her brother.

“That my sister has the poor taste to have chosen a – a drug-addled meth-head for her future husband!”

“That’s my brother you’re talking about, and he’s cleaned up his act,” Penny says, managing not to punch him in the mouth.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

That’s how it starts.

* * *

Missy decides to subvert gender expectations by enlisting Sheldon as her best man and George Jr. as her groomsman, along with one of her female friends, a real firecracker named Marie who works at Fuddruckers with her. Wyatt Jr. has Penny as maid of honor, their sister Jennifer (“Penny and Jenny? _Really_?” Sheldon asks with disbelief), and his best friend and former best customer Todd, who still has a habit of scratching his arms and sniffling when stressed out.

“This is going to be a disaster,” Sheldon says.

“Shut up, Sheldon.”

Figuring out matching outfits is the biggest nightmare of Penny’s life. She wishes her brother hadn’t decided to get his act clean, hadn’t trained as a chemistry teacher, and hadn’t moved to Galveston in response to a need for chem teachers. Which is, by the way, where the wedding’s being held, so Penny has to do much of the planning by phone or by Skype if Missy has fabric swatches or flower arrangements to show her.

* * *

They spend weeks sitting side by side – Penny and Sheldon in Pasadena, Missy and Wyatt Jr. in Galveston – going through guest lists and catering menus and other stuff. When they’re not sitting still they’re practicing dances for the reception. At some point Penny says maybe she should just become a wedding planner.

“Anyone who hasn’t seen the state of your living room would no doubt encourage you,” Sheldon says.

“Shut up, Sheldon,” becomes her mantra.

Every so often they take breaks to attack each other viciously in _World of Warcraft_ or _Halo 4_ just to blow off steam. What Missy and Wyatt Jr. do during these breaks Penny can only guess at, but it probably involves stuff Mary wouldn’t approve of happening pre-maritally.

The frustrating part is that Sheldon keeps making stupid suggestions. Penny’s not sure if he knows they’re stupid suggestions – she doesn’t know if he knows that white lilies and yellow roses mean “death” and “friendship” respectively, but when he suggests that the bridal party all wear black she knows he’s up to something. And every time he says something stupid, it provokes an hour long argument with Missy.

Penny figures out that that’s the whole point when she finds Sheldon’s list of ways to stop the wedding. It’s on one of his whiteboards and it’s headed “How to Stop Missy’s Wedding”, and aside from the last point, which is “kill off Wyatt Jr. in meth lab accident” a lot of it looks scarily feasible. (And he  _did_  research the meaning of flowers, damn him.)

(She wonders if there’s a flower that means “stop being a dick”.)

* * *

“Why don’t you want your sister to marry my brother?”

She asks him directly one night when they’re at dinner at the Cheesecake Factory so he can’t dodge the question unless he pretends to need the bathroom.

He spends half an hour hiding in the bathroom and then complains that his cheeseburger is cold. She shoves all the toppings onto it, nukes it for thirty seconds, and plunks it back down in front of him without waiting to hear him complain.

That night, she gets home, tries to open her front door, and he’s  _Vaselined_  the fucking  _doorknob._

“ _Sheldon_!”

Leonard comes out of their apartment with a box of tissues and helps her clean the doorknob up. It’s the longest they’ve spent alone together since the world didn’t end in 2012 and Leonard accidentally made out with Amy in celebration on New Year’s and that had effectively ended the whole on again off again thing between Leonard and Penny, funnily enough.

“He’s not coming out,” he informs Penny. “He said he knows you found his list, whatever that means, and he doesn’t want to discuss it tonight, because you made his cheese too melty.”

“Tell him he’s nuts.” Penny shoves a wad of tissues into Leonard’s hand, opens her door, and throws her purse onto the couch. Then she grabs a pen and her latest cable bill and starts scribbling.

Sheldon’s not the only one who can make lists.

* * *

The wedding day’s getting closer, and every time Sheldon tries to enact one of his little plans, Penny’s ready to act against him, if not before him. She calls the florist, the caterers, the venue, and warns them all that he might call and try to cancel their bookings. She calls Missy and gives her Sheldon’s list of sabotage methods (prudently leaving out the part where he’s considering murdering Missy’s fiancé). And she kills Sheldon several times in  _Age of Conan_ , just because she can, and because it helps her keep pace with him, because he still won’t tell her why he’s so unhappy about the wedding.

Some nights she wants to cry at how unfair Sheldon’s being. Wyatt Jr.’s been clean for ages now, for over a year before he met Missy; the only reason he smells like weird chemicals anymore is when the seventh- and eighth-graders blow something up in the school lab, and Penny’s seen the way his eyes light up around Missy.

In the end she makes a list of Wyatt Jr.’s good qualities and gives it to Sheldon one night while they’re Skyping with the couple, when Wyatt’s AFK getting another soda. Sheldon reads it silently and puts it in his pocket. She’s itching with tension, dying to ask him what he thinks, but not in front of Missy. Then when the call ends there’s a squeak of bedsprings and the sound of Bryan Adams from down the hallway and Sheldon’s face settles into a stone mask like an Easter Island idol.

“I think we should discuss this later,” he says.

“Sheldon, this is getting ridiculous. The wedding’s in June. We need to – _you_ need to be on board with all of this by then, because I don’t want you ruining your sister’s wedding day.”

“No doubt your brother will manage to do that himself when he ends up serving methamphetamines at the reception,” Sheldon says acidly.

Penny snaps. She grabs his prized leather cushion off the couch, marches over to the window, and holds it dangling over the street below. “Take that back, or the cushion gets it.”

“Penny.” His arms wrap around her waist from behind and she almost drops it anyway out of shock. “Don’t do it. I...”

“I’m waiting.”

“I can’t.”

“Can’t what? Apologize? Then I’m letting go.” She lets go with one hand. The cushion swings from her hand. She imagines she can see the ghost of green paint on it.

“Penny,” he says despairingly. “I’m sorry.”

Penny slowly draws her hand back in. The cushion bumps in over the windowsill and she puts it down on the floor, then turns in the circle of his awkward not-embrace and puts her arms around his shoulders.

“I never thought I wouldn’t be good enough,” he says, his voice muffled against the side of Penny’s neck.

She doesn’t understand at first. “To be your sister’s best man? Of course you are, she loves you.”

“No. I mean for Amy. I thought we had such a pure relationship based on the meeting of two minds. Instead, it turns out she’s just as susceptible to the call of her hormones as anybody else.”

“Oh.” Penny absently strokes his hair and debates whether “emotionally wrought after breaking up with one’s girlfriend” counts as a kind of sick. Now doesn’t seem to be the time for _Soft Kitty_ , though. “Yeah, I wasn’t all that happy about that either.”

“Maybe we should talk about this somewhere they’re not.” Sheldon lets her go and picks up his cushion, brushing imaginary dust from it before returning it to the couch and then striding toward the front door – and, she assumes, her apartment.

Fine. If it’ll get him to calm down, she’ll have a conversation with him and try to understand how come he’s so wound up still. If that means trying to comprehend Sheldonese, then so be it.

* * *

She still has some peppermint schnapps left from Christmas even though they’re now well into April, and makes hot cocoa with a shot of the liqueur in it, stirring it briskly with a mini-whisk to froth the milk up and topping each mug off with a blast from a can of Reddi-Wip. They sit on her couch, Sheldon tucking his long legs up under himself, Penny crossing hers at the knee and leaning sideways to look at him while he talks.

And the whole story comes out.

He’s resentful. He’s angry. He doesn’t see why anyone else should be happy when he’s been dumped for his roommate. He’s been trying so hard to be okay with the situation between Leonard and Amy that it’s all coming out against the wedding instead.

“How do you kiss someone by accident, anyway?” he demands. He’s got whipped cream on his upper lip. “I mean, I know she had blonde hair at the time, but it didn’t suit her and she had her glasses on. I refuse to believe Leonard could have mistaken her for you.” He downs the rest of his cocoa rapidly, even though Penny can see the steam rising off it. “You were three inches taller than her because you were wearing heels and she was wearing flats; you were wearing blue and she was wearing _brown_ ; I need more cocoa; and anyway, he’s not stupid.”

Penny makes him more peppermint-laced cocoa. “You can hardly blame her for experimenting. With her hair, I mean,” she adds hastily. “God knows she’s backhand complimented my hair often enough that she had to try it for herself.”

“How were her compliments backhanded?”

“Oh, you know, she kept raving about the color and then asking where I got it dyed.” Penny picks up a strand of her hair between her fingers and looks at it. “It doesn’t look that fake, does it?” She can’t believe she’s asking _Sheldon_ of all people if her hair looks dyed.

“Of course not. It’s like a river of gold.”

And he reaches out and clumsily strokes her hair, cocoa mug wobbling in his other hand.

Penny knows exactly how you kiss someone by accident. There are common factors often involved in an accidental kissing scenario. One, one or both parties are drunk or at least tipsy. Two, one or both parties are as a result looking at the other through new eyes.

Three, one or both parties actually want the kiss to happen anyway.

The whipped cream is still on his top lip when she leans in and so that’s what she goes for, sucking his lip in between hers and licking it. His hand tightens in her hair and she hears the soft clunk of his cocoa mug being set down on her coffee table before his other hand comes up, warm and smelling of chocolate and peppermint, and cups her cheek. He doesn’t seem to know what to do with his mouth and so she shows him with the press of lips and tongue and the tilt of her head and he follows her lead like in the dancing they’ve been practicing. She coaxes his mouth open and when his tongue comes out to meet hers she feels like high-fiving herself, because she’s pretty sure she’s just solved the problem.

* * *

They don’t separate for eons. She’s got too much to show him, and a heart this long wounded needs a lot of time to heal. Both of them do, really, because she was hurt by Leonard’s betrayal as well. Not to mention hugely surprised. Not as surprised as she is that she’s sitting on her couch making out with Sheldon, though. She’s pretty sure that qualifies as the bigger surprise here.

It’s funny, it doesn’t really feel like an accident. If it is, it’s one that’s been waiting to happen.

“I think I’m beginning to see what all the fuss is about,” Sheldon says, voice a little fuzzy, about forty-five minutes after Penny’s lips first touch his.

“Thanks, sweetie. It’s good to know I’m right about _something_.”

Sheldon makes a scoffing noise and Penny kisses him again to shut him up. She can’t quite believe that this is where they have been led by everything, but now that she’s here she wouldn’t be anywhere else, for preference. The lights are low because two of the globes have burned out and she hasn’t replaced them; it adds a shadowy air of romance to the scene, like candlelight.

“Does this mean you’re my girlfriend now?”

Penny almost chokes. “Um, what?”

“I understand if you’re not. I know you don’t always assign boyfriend status to the men that visit here, but...” He trails off, looking frustrated and a little dejected.

“Oh, Sheldon. Whatever this is, it’s not like that.” She strokes his cheek with the palm of her hand and he leans into her touch like a cat. “Apart from anything else, we still have a wedding to be... to be best attendants at, and we need to at least look like we’re getting along for that.”

“The wedding’s in June. It’s April. What if...”

“What if what?”

“What if you find someone you _do_ want for your boyfriend?”

She can’t figure out why he’s being so plaintive all of a sudden, and then it clicks.

“Sheldon. Do you want me to be your girlfriend?”

His head comes up and he looks her in the eye. “And what if I do?”

“Then you have to _ask_. I’m not going to wait over a year for you to ask.” He flinches, and she drops her hand from his cheek to take his hand in hers. “I’m sorry. But I’m not someone who can be a girl who’s someone’s friend but not their girlfriend the way Amy was to you.”

“Does that mean you’d say yes if I asked?”

“Are you asking?”

“ _Penny_!”

“Well, _are_ you?”

He lets out an annoyed huff and then takes the lead in their next kiss and really, he’s picked it up faster from her than she picked up dancing from him. He’s still nervous underneath it but he’s willing to try and that’s what matters.

“Will you?” he asks after a minute, and of course she says yes.

* * *

In June.

In June they’re still together. They haven’t gotten past the kissing stage, but that’s okay, and when Penny catches the bouquet Sheldon doesn’t bolt the way Leonard looked like he might have had Amy caught it, and that’s even better.

It’s a bright day, a sunshine day; Penny, Jennifer, and Marie all look like rays of sunlight in gold, while Missy looks radiant in white. The guys look a little overheated and Penny’s not so sure about the gold cummerbunds in person but Missy likes them and that’s the main thing.

The flowers do include yellow roses, but only amongst the red and white ones, and they smell like summer and new beginnings, and when Penny feels their stems touch down into her reaching hands, she turns to look and sees Sheldon smiling.

They’ve kept things quiet until now, not wanting to jinx this tentative maybe-relationship with a public announcement, but as the music starts again and she moves into his arms he bends his head and kisses her right there on the dance floor in full view of everyone. Penny hears a glass smash from Leonard’s general direction and doesn’t care.

In June they’ve been together for two months, and it’s long enough to be sure.


End file.
